


Falling From Grace

by aurilly



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M, Oceanic Six
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-31
Updated: 2009-03-31
Packaged: 2017-10-02 19:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurilly/pseuds/aurilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate and Sayid are the only ones with no one to meet them once they're rescued.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling From Grace

They exited the plane into bright sunshine. Despite their couple of days on Sumba, only now did Kate really feel as though she'd returned to the real world. This, here, was modern life. A proper airport with cameras and machinery and most of all, people who knew people she knew.

Kate hung towards the back of the group, clutching Aaron and already missing the quiet tension of their limbo week with Penny and her crew. For Kate, _that_ had been rescue, sailing in the middle of the ocean where no one could find them or make them answer for anything, and with people who still thought of her as Kate. Just Kate, the plucky woman who could be counted on to tackle anything.

Now, it was Desmond who was going to run indefinitely, and Kate was going to face the music. Now that it was happening, she tried to remember her reasons for leaving the island, other than the need to keep moving. As cameras blinked around her, she wondered if maybe Sawyer had been right, after all.

An older lady---had to be Jack's mom---rushed up to hug him. Jack with a mom was even more surreal than Jack playing the piano. She couldn't even say that she wasn't what she'd expected, because Kate had never once imagined Jack's mom. Divorced from life as they had been, Kate had thought of her companions as the purest of individuals, unfettered by outside ties and given blank slates---Sun, Jin, Rose, and Bernard had been the only exceptions. Sun's parents were there, too, hugging her ecstatically. Kate remembered with a wistful frown little snippets of what Sun had told her about her family. It never sounded like they had been very supportive or happy. But maybe coming back from the dead fixed all that. Kate thought of her own mother, calling feebly for help that day in the hospital, afraid of her own daughter. She wondered if coming back from the dead could change their relationship, too.

Hurley's parents were also there. Cute-looking people who seemed really happy. For all the time they'd spent together, Kate realized that she knew nothing about Hurley's pre-crash life. She knew how he reacted to stressful situations, that he was a true-blue friend, and how good he made everyone feel all the time, but she knew nothing about his life. There was that crazy story about the hatch numbers and the lottery, but it had never mattered when they were all living in tents.

Looking at the Reyes's, Kate wondered if she knew any of her fellow castaways at all. And she wondered if they knew her. Maybe it didn't even matter, because no matter what they thought of her now, it would all change once they found out what she'd done. It was only a matter of minutes now before the cops showed up, or before someone at the press conference they were going to mentioned it.

Locke had thought he knew her. Locke had respected her, liked her based on the person she was on the island. He had vouched for her to the Others. And he'd changed his mind as soon as they'd told him about her past. Why should the rest of them be any different?

Everyone else had someone. Everyone else except Sayid. He was standing there just as awkwardly as Kate was. And she realized that of all of them, she knew the least about Sayid. Did he really not have anyone who would come and claim him, who was excited to know that he was alive? Did he not have any family? Friends? Yes, he was a reserved guy, but Kate couldn't imagine that he was this alone in the world. Now that she thought about it, he'd spoken even less about his personal life than anyone else she could think of. It was especially strange, given how much more time she'd spent with him than almost anyone else. Maybe this was why.

Kate caught his eye, and they shared a sad, quiet look of understanding. She was about to go over and stand with him, hopefully forming with him and Aaron a motley crew of orphans---just as they'd all been for the past 108 days, but of which only they three remained---but just as she started to move towards him, Hurley swooped in and dragged Sayid over to meet his mother. It was disappointing, but Kate couldn't help but smile a little as she watched Sayid's slightly panicked expression. Sayid was clearly as bad at these situations as Kate was.

It said a lot, though. Even though she knew Hurley could never have intended it, Kate knew that she wasn't the kind of girl you introduce to your mother. Jack, for all his recent declarations of love still hadn't even glanced in her direction. She knew she shouldn't take it personally. Mothers came before weird island non-girlfriends. They should.

There was nothing to do but face her fate alone, alone as she had been ever since she'd gone on the run. Well, there was the time on the island. She hadn't felt alone then. They'd had their commune, and if anyone could have been called Queen Bee, it had been Kate. But like so many things about their time there, that all seemed like a crazy dream now, a cracked-out interruption.

She began walking towards the terminal, hushing Aaron, who now started to fidget. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sayid make one of his overly formal little gestures and excuse himself from Hurley's family. Gliding smoothly towards her, Sayid wrapped his arms around Kate, resting one hand on the top of Aaron's head.

"Where are you going?" he whispered into her ear as a swarm of cameras flashed, capturing this picturesque moment between former castaways.

"I dunno. Inside, I guess. I was going to let you all have your family time."

"Hurley is very kind, but they are his family, not mine."

"Where are your people?" Kate asked hesitantly. As the words left her mouth, she realized that, for the first time in months, she had just used the phrase "your people" to mean family, rather than to designate Others versus people from the freighter versus 815 survivors. Yes, things on the island really had come to an end. They'd returned to normal life, or at least, as normal as it could ever be again.

"I have no one," he replied softly and evasively. There was pain behind his eyes that made her wonder if whatever was in his past was even darker than what was in hers. "What about you?"

Kate shook her head. "Nobody."

"Then let us stay together," he said.

They slowly progressed down the tarmac. The reporters were being held behind a barrier, but that didn't stop them from shouting questions at them. But Aaron was in Kate's arms and Sayid was holding her, and they were the only three people in the world.

Still, Kate couldn't help but feel depressed, almost visualizing the imminent end of his affection drawing near. Better now than later, she decided. Better to say it herself than have someone else damn her. She blurted almost inaudibly into his ear, "The charges against me. I'm wanted for killing my father, in cold blood. And other stuff, too, that I did while I was on the run for that."

Sayid didn't even flinch. His non-reaction was as if she'd just told him that she had a slight headache. And then he said the one thing in the world that she most wanted to hear.

"You are still Kate," he said. "Those things were true before. Knowing them now changes nothing."

What was even better was that she knew he meant it.

The next day, those pictures were on the front of every newspaper in the entire world, along with variations of the headline, "Miraculous Survivors Form Unlikely But Supportive Family."


End file.
